Sunday, February 26, 2006
Day 3
It drizzled a lot in the night and it was about 7 when we finally got out from our sleeping bags and tents to be greeted by the fresh freezing morning. Despite the sleeping bags, my feet never got warm the whole night. I had never had a chance to take a look at the surroundings the previous night since it was already dark when we arrived. Now when I took a look I was fascinated by the view I got. We were surrounded on all sides by giant mountains, right behind us was a huge sheet of ice and snow from the last winter, still melting. We couldn't see a soul around. The four of us and our belongings seemed to be the only things to suggest that there was life around, and I loved that feeling... to be alone in nature's lap, with not a thing to care for in the world.
After hanging around for a few minutes, shooting pictures, the adventurer in me got the better of me and I started the bike and wandered off to a huge slab of snow near by. The undulating terrain was fun to ride on. Every now and then there would be deep trenches to ride around and cross at the shallowest point. I parked my bike at the fringe of the snow slab after trying to ride on it proved futile. Looking around, I saw a path leading up the mountain, probably used by local shepherds. I decided to trek up the path. It was exhausting, the altitude got the better of me and I had to sit down every few meters to catch my breath. I envied the agility and stamina of shepherds as I saw later on them walking right across the mountain face like we would walk on plain ground. I trekked up as far as I could till the path wore off and it got too steep to climb further. From this vantage point, I got a bird's-eye view of our tents, Sumit riding towards me and an idea of the layout of the whole area.
Climbing down from my vantage point, me and Sumit spent a few hours exploring the place and capturing the landscape in our cameras, while Manik and Sunil, not particularly interested in off-roading stayed around the tent and did some good photography of their own, using Manik's camera.
BRO had its hands full keeping this critical highway and supply route open during the Kargil war as this came under heavy artillery shelling from Pakistani troops. This was indicated by sign boards which proclaimed a 'Zero hour road closure during OP Vijay'... one of those things that kindles patriotic feelings.
There were many large patches of snow left behind from the last winter's snowfall in this region. These were melting from the lower layers, creating caves that were many meters deep. The snow melt also provided us with water for making coffee and cup-o-noodles, which was our breakfast. I also crawled in some way into one of these caves to take this photo of a patch of sky appearing through a hole n the cave roof.
Packing up our tents and sleeping bags took a great deal of time since we were not accustomed to the task and had to experiment a few times before we were able to pack the tents back as they should be packed.
It was 2 PM when we finally started the day's journey, and could do only 100 kms for the day, which was the shortest distance covered in a day during this trip. This included frequent stops for photography and a stop at Drass to call home.
Shortly after starting again, Sumit had his tyre punctured by a nail. The tuffup tube helped things and we inflated the tyre using the electric pump, pulled out the nail and continued on our way.
There was a TCP about 2 Kms after we started and we registered at the check post before riding further. We were stopped again at the next traffic check post a few kms further. The army mistook us for another expedition that was passing by. They realized this soon and we were allowed to proceed further only after having tea with the jawans.
The Ladakh landscape was a sight to behold. It was absolute bliss riding through that terrain. I stopped every few minutes to take out my camera and shoot photos. The roads at places would be very straight with sudden humps over which I literally flew over, with both wheels in the air. Even with all the luggage tied around the back, my bike handled impeccably at these jumps. The next stop was Dras - the second coldest inhabited place on earth. This place recorded -60 Deg C in 1995. We tried in vain to call home from here, as there seemed to be a problem with phone connections in this town.
This is one ride I'll remember for a very different reason. I had my first fall on a bike ever on this route. This happened Some way after we started off after a break for some refreshments and air for Sumit's tyre. I was at the back of the pack, Sumit was way ahead, hurrying to reach Kargil as soon as possible since he was losing air. I overtook Manik and right ahead, rushing at me was a monstrous army truck. There was another one parked at the right side. So there was no way we could both pass by, unless one of us got off the road and stopped. The truck seemed to be in no mood to stop. So I had to do whatever I could to avoid crashing into the truck head on. I must have been doing about 50 Kph then. I swerved to the left to get off the road. Though I avoided the truck, there were 2 big rocks lying there, I could avoid only one. the front tyre hit the other, it flipped over, I lost my balance and fell to my right side, my right leg trapped under the saddle bag at the rear. I escaped without a scratch, thanks to the leather gloves and nylon lowers over jeans and a layer of thermals. While getting off the road, I had to take care not to get too far off or I would have landed in the river Indus. Another thing to avoid was a huge cement block that BRO uses to put up the interesting road signs you'll see all over this route. I checked for damage and found nothing but a scratch on my head light glass. Thankfully, it didn't break. I gathered my nerves quickly while Manik adjusted my luggage, which got loose from the fall. I continued again in my usual style... ripping away, while Manik and Sunil got caught in the rains and had to stop to cover the luggage. It was dark and the the weather had turned bad by now, with strong winds and dust storms threatening to throw us off the road. A short way before Kargil, we had to take another stop as Sumit's tyre was almost flat again. This time it won't hold air how ever much we tried with the electric pump.
We reached Kargil soon and our priority was to find a hotel and settle in for the night. Kargil is not really a good place to spend a night. We had difficulty finding a hotel with a bath and warm water. Finally, we succeeded in finding one where the owner assured us we will get warm water in the morning. Another small restaurant fleeced us by having us pay 50 Rs each for a plate of rice and Aalo-Gobhi, while the locals were munching away happily, I guess for not even half that price.
